Email Phishing and How to Report It

A Guide to Understanding and Reporting an Email Phishing Attempt

What is Phishing

Phishing is the process of attempting to acquire sensitive
information such as usernames, passwords, and credit card details by
masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an email or other electronic
communication.

The purpose of a phishing attack is to trick you into
providing personally identifiable information such as your username and
password, bank account information, social security number, or credit card
information. In most cases, phishing scams are after something of monetary
value or they are trying to commandeer your account.

If you respond to a phishing scam with your personal
information, this could result in identity theft, whereby someone else may be
able to apply for and get credit in your name, empty your bank account, change
the direct deposit account for your paycheck, or use your account to send spam
and more phishing attacks to others.

How to Spot a Phishing Scam

To learn how to spot a phishing scam, please see our
Phishing Scams training video.

What Should I Do if I Receive a Phishing Scam

If you receive a phishing scam, don’t respond to it, click
on links, or open attached files. Instead, report the phishing scam.

How to Report a Phishing Scam

Outlook 2013 for Windows 7

To view a message’s headers in Outlook 2013 for Windows 7, first open the message in a new window. Click on the “Home” button on the navigation bar and then select “Properties” from the Tags group. The headers are found in the “Internet headers” dialog box and can be copied and pasted from here. Select, copy, and paste the headers into the designated area at https://phishing.nau.edu/phishReport/addPhish.

Outlook 2010 for Windows 7

The headers for Windows 7 Outlook 2010 can be found by selecting “Properties” from the File tab drop down menu in a new window for the Email in question. Headers are located in the “Internet headers” dialog box. Select, copy, and paste the headers into the designated area at https://phishing.nau.edu/phishReport/addPhish.

Outlook 2003/2007

While looking at the list of messages in your inbox, right-click on the phishing message. There should be an entry labeled Message Options… (or simply Options… in 2003). Select this and a new window will open. At the bottom of the window will be a text box containing the full email headers. Select, copy, and paste the headers into the designated area at https://phishing.nau.edu/phishReport/addPhish.

Outlook 2011 for Mac:

To view and obtain headers for Outlook 2011 Mac, right click on message from the inbox and select “view source” from the drop down menu. This will bring up the corresponding headers in a separate window as a text file. Highlight the headers and copy them to be pasted in to the email before forwarding it. Select, copy, and paste the headers into the designated area at https://phishing.nau.edu/phishReport/addPhish.

Entourage

View the message. Then go to the Message -> Internet Headers menu item. This will display all the headers. Select and copy the headers. Click your mouse in the forwarded message where you want to insert the headers and paste them in. The shortcut key to accomplish this is Command-Shift-H. Select, copy, and paste the headers into the designated area at https://phishing.nau.edu/phishReport/addPhish.

Mac Mail

View the message, then go to the View -> Message -> Long Headers menu item. The headers will be exposed in the email. Click anywhere in the headers, and select and copy them. Click your mouse in the forwarded message where you want to insert the headers and paste them in. Repeat the View -> Message -> Long Headers action to turn off showing full headers. The shortcut key to turn on and off exposure of headers is Command-Shift-H. Select, copy, and paste the headers into the designated area at https://phishing.nau.edu/phishReport/addPhish.

Office Web Access (OWA)

Bring up OWA in Internet Explorer so that you get the full OWA version. Double-click on the message in the inbox so the message opens in its own window. At the top of the window will be several icons. One of them is the Message Details icon. It is a picture of an open envelope with a sheet of paper superimposed over the right side of the envelope. It’s just to the left of the Printer icon. Click the Message Details icon, and a new window will open. At the bottom of the window will be a text box containing the headers. Select, copy, and paste the headers into the designated area at https://phishing.nau.edu/phishReport/addPhish.

NAU GMail

To access headers in GMail, open the message from the inbox. In the top right corner click on the arrow to open the drop down menu and select “Show Original” from the options. This will open a separate page with the headers shown at the top. Select, copy, and paste the headers into the designated area at https://phishing.nau.edu/phishReport/addPhish.